Yay to Google for opening up Gmail to external POP3 e-mail accounts. Sort of. Without fanfare, Google recently rolled out the ability to customize the "from:" address when sending mail through Gmail.

In other words, now you can send an e-mail from you@yourname.com instead of you@gmail.com, if you want. Why is this a big deal to me? Well, for one, that was the only feature stopping me from switching away from Yahoo Mail for good. Now I no longer have that excuse.

The new feature doesn't allow you to check POP3 mail through Gmail, but you can hack it by setting up a redirect from your POP3 account to your Gmail account. With a simple rule, you can automatically label mail from that account accordingly and reply as if you were managing that POP3 account.

Once again, count on Google to offer a functional and simple solution that Microsoft would have spent two years trying to solve.

Oh, and Gmail is now open to everyone, too. The only catch is, if you want an account, you'll have to send a text message to Google requesting your account. Seems kinda weird to me, but I'm sure the big G has an ulterior motive relating to its upcoming mobile phone ambitions. Definitely stay tuned to that one.